Let me just state a truth about our country that far too few seem to understand anymore: We live in a free enterprise society - NOT a socialist one!
This may seem obvious to most everyone, but what's unfortunate about many today is that we are a people who are often well educated, but highly misinformed. Coworkers, people I rub shoulders with in public, maybe even a friend or relative....so many fooled into thinking we should all be on level ground.
When I say "we," substitute for "the poor, middle class, and wealthy alike."
As hard as it may be to do so, dismiss for a few moments the knowledge we all so intimately share (or like to think we do, because the media and movies are always credible sources) that all the wealthy are crooked or were born with a silver spoon in their mouths. If you put that aside, you can entertain the thought that there is a nobility and admirable quality to how wealth and success is often obtained. Many of the wealthiest in America (or around the world, for that matter) got where they are now after VERY humble beginnings. In fact, in light of Bastiat's Law, it can be understood that most of those who have achieved that status and kept it did so more often than not through toil and valuable life lessons, not through overnight magic or from inheritance. Bastiat's Law, often quoted by leadership expert Orrin Woodward as one of his noted "Five Laws of Decline," is simply put, that whenever plunder is available along with hard work as contemporary choices, human nature is liable to take plunder.
In other words, if you have to earn it the hard way, it's easier to do things the crooked way.
And in still other words, by extension, if you earned it through doing things the hard way, you appreciate it and treat it right.
I will definitely concede that there are many juggernaut company tycoons, wealthy back-pocket-stuffing politicians, and others who didn't achieve wealth or success by the noblest of means. But what drives me crazy is the haste with which so many around me in this day and age seem to cast the net of generality over ALL wealthy people, defaulting to a position of disdain.
But let's call it like it is. If we're really honest with ourselves, we know that there are some of them who got where they are by honest, hard fought, long-hours kind of living for many years to have the results that become known to the public eye. And what usually parades as disdain is an underlying envy of those people - that they figured out how to beat this gosh-awful, savage game in life, the battle against an economy, and the rules of conventional income-earning, to emerge victorious.
So what I'm saying tonight is: Stop being a victim, and go figure out how to be a victor in the game.
I have worked many hours in retail or other settings where I got to service the elderly generations. I often wonder what they're thinking as they go through these latter years of life in a society that has become so completely soft and whiny. Many of us have grandparents or great grandparents, or maybe even parents, who valiantly risked their lives or gave them up altogether in ugly warfare, for the protection of our rights and liberties in this land of the free and home of the brave.
Only now they probably listen to the conversations, eye up the slumped postures and sagged clothing, and bear witness to petty and lazy behavior, and think, "Brave? What brave?" We applaud those who step out and get a second job - when they could really stick to one if they just made better financial choices - like THEY'RE some kind of heroes and hard working icons.
How about this? Take that victim card...you know you have one...and rip that puppy up and chuck it in the nearest fire.
Playing the victim card is one's way of handing over all ability or opportunity to do something to change the current reality.
Dear fellow citizen, whether you realize it or not, the United States of America is still the greatest place to live where opportunity exists. It's an ever fleeting reality, as we continue to allow our ballooning and ungodly government to sneak our freedoms out from under us. But it's still true that if you really want a different set of circumstances, you CAN go out there and get them!
It's going to take a radical change in your thinking, though. A change process that I myself, through the influence and mentorship of entrepreneurs in the past few years, have only begun to skim the surface of. But it's worthy of your time and effort. You need to seek out those who appear to have the fruit on the tree that you wish your little sapling had to show for itself. Don't shun or think morally less of those who have accomplished something. They may actually have something to teach you. There's lessons that don't end up being learned from school curriculums, about self-respect, discipline, integrity in dealings, how to influence others and win them over to your way of thinking for the common good... There's lessons about how to be shrewd with your finances, and practice delayed gratification instead of having everything your whims lean toward in the now. There's even some of these folks who can help you grow your faith, so you know how true wealth is really found, and how to balance ambitions with grounded priorities, to keep values at heart, and keep ones intentions in check.
But all these things have to be learned. They don't flow into us from video game consoles. They don't come to us as a rebate from the bar after running up so high a tab in so many consecutive weekends of partying. They don't enter into our minds on accident.
Don't bemoan the wealthy or successful. Don't call it unfair. Unfair is what it would be if we were all forced to make a living by beating LeBron James in one-on-one every week (well, at least for people like me, and 98% of the rest of the regular population). Once you come to understand and appreciate not only how much opportunity truly exists out there in our country, for those who are truly hungry and creative, but also how wealth is earned and maintained, you simply can't keep playing that victim card.
The truth is, dear fellow 21st century American citizen, you have it inside you. Your intellect is sufficient, and you have enough of your own personal, unique brand of genius that was infused into you at birth, to accomplish great things. You can have a fantastic, well-rounded lifestyle that can be the envy of others who also don't get it. You can climb the right kind of ladder to whatever heights you wish, if you'll only humble yourself to see the vanity in cutting others down.
You, my friend, can be a victor. Don't be a victim. Define what you want you life to actually look like - and place no boundaries or limits on that painting in your mind. Then be willing to go seek out those who have results you want in your future. Then learn from them. Copying was verboten in school, but in adulthood, anyone from Richard Branson to John Maxwell, from Jeff Bezos to [the late] Steve Jobs, from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg -- they'll all tell you that copying is the best way to ensure you climb to the heights you're truly wishing for.
So stop the wishing. Stop the envying. Stop the disdain. The victim card will get you no further than where you are right now. Go be a victor. Chase down your own personal victories. They are more than within your grasp if you're willing to fight for them.
Then, one day, when the tables are turned and you're enjoying the spoils of your toils, you'll be hoping all the Everyday Joes and Janes (like what you used to be) don't loathe you, because you'll know that if they do, they just don't know the whole story.
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